Maintenance is an ongoing occurrence for vehicles and structures that typically have a relatively long operational lifespan. Examples of vehicles that typically undergo maintenance include aircraft, maritime vessels, automobiles, and other large investment assemblies. Examples of structures that typically undergo maintenance include petrochemical facilities, power generation facilities, nuclear facilities, water treatment plants, etc. . . . Routine maintenance for such vehicles and structures may advantageously extend the operational lifespan of the objects.
Inspection of the an object's structure during maintenance is often important to capture normal wear and tear, such as corrosion and cracking, as well as the presence of foreign object debris (FOD). Since the interior structure of some objects such as aircrafts is often difficult to access, one technique frequently used to inspect the object includes disassembling it. Although disassembly provides access to interior surfaces that are otherwise difficult to access, this technique is often time consuming and expensive.
An alternative technique for performing maintenance utilizes X-ray imaging. X-ray imaging involves generating images of the object using an X-ray imaging system. One advantage of X-ray imaging is that it reduces maintenance cycle time since it may not require disassembly in order to inspect interior surfaces.
Maintaining objects using X-ray imaging is often labor intensive, limited to generating images which fall within the field of view of the X-rays, and potentially generates unwanted radiation. For example, in situations where the X-ray field of view is smaller than the object under inspection, the X-ray system may require continuous reorientation during the imaging operations. Re-orienting the field of view of the X-rays may be challenging since it can require labor intensive tooling operations. Often times, re-positioning of the system requires removing a high voltage power cable from the X-ray tube prior to performing the tooling operation. Since many X-ray high voltage power cables require greasing every time they are connected to or disconnected from the X-ray tube, time consuming labor is involved every time the high voltage cable is removed from the X-ray tube.
Furthermore, disassembly and reassembly of the systems are often labor intensive and require various tools. Disassembly and assembly may be required to transport the system such as when the system maintains more than one object, when the service location varies, or when the system is stored. Often, disassembly and reassembly requires labor intensive tooling operations including disconnecting the imaging system from the high voltage power supply. In addition, it often takes multiple personnel to move the system physically.